Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer Creatures
Frozen Sick
D&D Beyond Basic Rules
Basic Rules (2014)
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Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer CreaturesFrozen SickD&D Beyond Basic RulesBasic Rules (2014)Sign in to view your library & saved favorites.
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It's also worth mentioning that giving each and every defender a name and backstory doesn't make them immune to being killed in an attack and then needing to be replaced. It could even be an interesting story beat for the player character to deal with if the DM and the player want to handle it that way. But that risk is just part of the life for a professional soldier or guard, and giving them names and backstories won't save them from that. Dealing with those consequences of an attack on a bastion doesn't mean you're treating them like cannon fodder.
Yeah this is a little off topic, but Bastion defense sessions can be pretty fun, and in anticipation of that that fun, pouring money and Resources into a bastion's defenses makes sure those orphans or displaced town's people you sheltered stand a better chance against the undead horde.
He/Him. Loooooooooong time Player.
The Dark days of the THAC0 system are behind us.
"Hope is a fire that burns in us all If only an ember, awaiting your call
To rise up in triumph should we all unite
The spark for change is yours to ignite."
Kalandra - The State of the World
Good point. In my Bastion, I want to be able to say that Alicia is a fine cook and a decent bard rather than simply say that minion is a cook. As for disregarding back stories of a soldier, that is unacceptable. My cousin lived from 1944 to 2008, during his life, he was a US Army paramedic in Vietnam, then in civilian life, he was a fire fighter and a registered nurse. Which part of that story is unimportant?
If you really want a banking system so that player characters have some place to plop their cash, and to earn some interest on their deposits, then you need an accountant to advise you. You will also need a tax agency to collect a tax on wealth.
As for myself, I assume that included in the various lifestyle expenses is a tax on my apparent wealth to support the town and such.
LIke literally every other aspect of D&D, the bastion system has two independent aspects. There is the purely mechanical aspect and the roleplay aspect. If players and groups only want to interact with the mechanical side of bastions, that’s fine, and it isn’t your place to judge someone for how they want to interact with what is mechanically little different than a very limited shopbuilding simulator.
But if you want to do more with your bastion, that is fine. No one is stopping you from giving every single soldier in your bastion a name and backstory. That is what I do - each of my bastion workers has at least a page write up on who they are (because I am mostly a forever DM, and making NPCs is my addiction).
In fact, the official rules encourage that - it was a stated goal of the bastion system to get players to do things like generate NPCs to help onboard them into DMing.
You also did not actually read the post you are responding to. At no point did ApplePaladin say that one needs to disregard backstory or that backstory was not important. To the contrary, they actively said you were welcome to include such. All they said is that backstory does not confer plot armor. You can give the soldier a name, a history, a wife and child, and love them as a character… but they still have a chance of dying, and that’s both mechanically sensible and might lead to good roleplay opportunities.
Lastly, this thread is not really about bastions. It looks a lot like you are trying derail the main thread to express your frustration with the bastion system (frustrations that seem more based on incorrect readings of the system than reality). If you want to complain about bastions, maybe start a new thread to do so?
In what moment anyone say that you should disregarding the back story of the minions?
I suspect this discussion has wandered off the path of what players ought to do with their loot, so I think I will simply retire to my cozy Bastion, request the bar tender to conjure a cold, frosty root beer float (the dwarves in the pub are glaring at me as I utter this request), request the resident bard to play a song or two from Heart and Fleetwood Mac (the elves and halflings approve of these choices) and just let my part of this thread end.
As for banking.
Keep it pretty simple. Not all banks are full service banks. We pretty much made them fit the size of the community.
Very small communities wouldn't even have a bank. At best the local bartender would only be able to work out of his till. And he might not even want to do that. When drinks are a few coppers changing a gold piece might not even be possible.
And flashing cash just brings in the criminals. Pick pockets, prostitutes looking to drug you and take your money, criminal city guards looking for a shake down. The list goes on.
Plus add in market place mark up once its known the group has a huge amount of cash. All those little kids asking for change are passing on the word of your wealth in hopes the local shop owners give them a tip for the information.
So many ways to lose the wealth long before you even find a bank to switch it into easy to hide items or denominations.
Bastions are fine but if you want to invest your treasure in them you need to get it home first.
Bear in mind that in a magic-infused world, the so-called "ladies of the evening" may not need illicit drugs; a well-timed Charm Person or Disguise Self spell may be equally as effective.
Of course, that simply means that instead of maintaining a Modest Lifestyle (1 gold per day), you maintain a very Comfortable Lifestyle (3 or 4 gold per day), with some of your wealth going to bodyguards(professional guards with Levels) as well as to payoffs to the local thieves' guilds and the local beggars guild, for the express purpose of leaving you and your party ALONE.
I'm inspired.
Now I want to turn a Bastion INTO a bank.
DM, player & homebrewer(Current homebrew project is an unofficial conversion of SBURB/SGRUB from Homestuck into DND 5e)
Once made Maxwell's Silver Hammer come down upon Strahd's head to make sure he was dead.
Always study & sharpen philosophical razors. They save a lot of trouble.
There's at least one facility from the Eberron book that plays well into that.
The Scribe background may be best for this.
You may want to have an agency called the Fiendish Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to chase after bank robbers, embezzlers, "white collar" swindlers and the like (calling any and all adventurers to chase after whomsoever purloined the contents of the vault).
Interesting ideas.
Addendum: did I not see a campaign module on this subject in the DnD Beyond Marketplace entitled "Acquisitions Inc"?
There is also a money lending system outside of banking thats been in use for a thousand years(IRL)
Gem transfer to start. Small easy to transport and hide. Normally used to transport large amounts between money lenders. Not necessarily banks.
Small banks might use this method but large banks would not. To much wealth in one spot.
Large banks would use promissory notes. Basically huge IOU's. Trusted to be eventually paid in cash by an agreed date. Amounts so large a "kings ransom" falls into this category.
In real life gem merchants in Europe would trade gems from person to person. Trusted traders would gather together and and pay off trusted notes. Thus gathering huge sums without having to move it right away. All the gem merchants in town A would get together and pay off the note from Town B. You just send the note instead of the gems or gold.
Vlad the Impaler used this method to borrow cash to pay for his wars, then he killed all of his lenders. It ruined his trust(credit score) but he didn't care.
And, there is the "rub": trusted notes. Do I see any of the rogues, or those with either Criminal or Charlatan backgrounds reaching for their forgery kits and to check whether their supply of super squid ink is sufficiently fresh!?
Not that the counterfeit artists are being ignored. If you have ever wondered why most of the higher value coins have milled or ridged edges instead of smooth edges, it is to make it much harder for some one to counterfeit a coin. A smooth edged coin can be gradually filed down along the edge. If you file down enough coins, you could have enough metal to fashion one or two "new" coins. Thus, turning 100 copper pieces into, perhaps, 105 copper coins.
(sigh) You almost want another background called "Counterfeit Detector". By the way, the original purpose of the U.S. Secret Service was to investigate and apprehend counterfeiters.